


The City of the Dead

by anacaoris



Category: The Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan, The Mummy (1999)
Genre: 1920s, Alternate Universe - The Mummy Fusion, Ancient Egyptian Literature & Mythology, Body Horror, Bonding, Curses, F/F, F/M, Families of Choice, Family Feels, Femslash, Gen, Historical References, M/M, Magic, Mild Sexual Content, Mummies, Slash, Variations on Ancient Egyptian Religion, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:54:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27135539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anacaoris/pseuds/anacaoris
Summary: After accidentally awakening the spirit of a vengeful Egyptian priest, Carter and Sadie have to settle their differences and join Horus, one of the last Medjay, in order to stop Imhotep from unleashing his deadly curse and taking over the world.
Relationships: Carter Kane & Sadie Kane, Carter Kane & Sadie Kane & Amos Kane, Horus/Carter Kane, Sadie Kane/Zia Rashid
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	The City of the Dead

. . . ( 1279 B.C.  
  
Menefer — Memphis. A great city protected by the god Ptah, patron of craftsmen. The capital of Pharaoh Seti, our great god made flesh. It was home, as well, to Imhotep, high priest of Ra, chancellor to the pharaoh and architect to his great pyramid. An imposing man, not one to be trifled with, who had been at the pharaoh's side since his reign began. 

It was this great city that had borne Mut-Tuya, the wife of the pharaoh. She bore many titles: the God’s Wife, the Queen Mother, Lady of Both Lands, Great Royal Wife. Tuya, may she live. She was beloved by all, beautiful and wise, a woman of such a beauty that many artists sought to immortalize in their work yet always fell short of. No painting or statue, no bust carved and painted to such realism that it seemed to nearly breathe, could capture the wit of her being or the intelligent shine in her dark eyes. As wife of the pharaoh, Tuya was to be loyal to her husband alone. Likewise, no one was to touch her, or they would suffer the worst of punishments for even daring to think of defiling her.

But for our love, we were willing to risk it all.

Many women would have lived a contented life at the right hand of the pharaoh, beloved by the people of Egypt, protected and envied by all, boasting the riches of the world for all to see. The great royal wife, first above all others that her husband could take to his side later on — though Seti would forever remain loyal to her — a true goddess among humans. But not Tuya. Tuya always hungered for bigger things. Bigger than standing side-by-side to the pharaoh, wife and queen, and soon, too, mother to another little god — Seti had given her three children, each as beautiful and wise as their mother. Her breathtaking beauty was second only to her intellect, to her brilliant and restless mind, which concocted plans of outgrowing the very kingdom she co-ruled over.

Tuya did not want to be just the wife, queen, mother of a god. She wanted to be god.

It was this way that I began aiding her. In my mind I could picture the future we would make together, the vast and sprawling empire we would control. Together we delved into magic untouched by even the most foolhardy of magicians and scholars. In power so dark and uncontrollable few dared to grasp, and even fewer survived we found the keys and answers we craved. Our mission was bloody, requiring the ultimate and most dangerous sacrifice — we would have to kill Seti, his flesh and blood the final key. Blinded by our naivety, we fearlessly we went through with our plan, knowing that soon, we would be unstoppable. We were wrong.

I will never forget that night: Tuya's smile secretly meant for me and only myself, the jewels on her neck, the moon bathing the royal garden in its silver glow. Seti's face darkening as he lowered his wine from his face, not having taken a drop, his guards surrounding us and led by one of Tuya's servants — the terrible realization that our plan had been discovered. And then, Tuya taking a dagger to her heart, choosing death and freedom over any punishment.

For the terrible task of attempting to murder the pharaoh, Tuya would have suffered the fate of forgetfulness — her name would forever be unspoken, her likeness in statues and art defaced and destroyed; all proof of her once existing would have been erased from the history of our kingdom. She would have been destroyed, her name then but a distant memory in the minds of those who had once known her. But Seti loved her still, would always love her, ans so spared her memory the shame of the unremembered.

I was not so lucky. I fled for the desert, hoping that the dark magic I had learned alongside by beloved would be enough to protect me from Seti’s wrath. I will run, I thought urgently, my chest and head pounding from exertion and the pain of having lost her, I will transform myself into a falcon and hide and wait until I can find Tuya once more. We will be together again, I will breathe life into her.

There was little time to waste, and as soon as I suspected I was no longer followed, I rode to where Tuya waited, her sarcophagus decorated in her likeness, with my aides assisting me for the ritual.

But nothing would hide me from the pharaoh. When I uncovered the sarcophagus I found not the body of my beloved, but an empty tomb. She had been placed elsewhere, and not even was I granted the opportunity to see her pne last time. And so I was captured and brought to Seti, to be punished as seen fit.

I know now that had I had the time, had I prepared better, I could have saved her. My knowledge had grown to surpass even the most knowledgeable of scholars and priests, so I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I could retrieve all part of Tuya's soul from the dark underworld in which she laid, have her beside me once more as we fulfilled our plans. But I was too late, and now she was lost to me forever. In my grief I prayed to and cursed them all in equal measure: Ptah, Eset, Ra, Heru, Asar, the gods that I had once worshipped, who had now abandoned me and the woman I loved.

Knowing the fate that soon would befall me but never deterred, I cursed Seti with my final breath. The Medjay raised their swords, ready to draw blood, but were chilled to the bone as I called forth the dark magic Tuya and I had learned, drawing the power of Apep, the chaos serpent that hungers to unmake the world. And so I swore to return, to bring Tuya once more into this plain of existence. It was a curse of unspeakable force, one that would not be destroyed or unmade by anyone else. For I knew what would come to pass, and with the desecration of where I laid, I would return again, a raging beast, a blight upon humanity.

Seti's priests knew better than to not fear my words. The Medjay struck true with their khopeshes, and when they realized that burning my remains would not work, they called forth the gods who I had turned my back upon, and worked to prepare my body. With the strongest of spells, amulets, any sort of charms, I was entombed. To protect from the dark influence that I would leave, to deter grave robbers or curious souls, my underground tomb was to be protected with all manner of dead ends to confuse any that entered — and deadly traps to ensure that even the most desperate would not continue their search, their demise a quicker mercy compared to what I would bring. No one knew the when or how of my words would become true, they only feared, and knowingly prepared for the inevitable.

In a sarcophagus designed to never be opened I was entombed, buried in the unnamed city of the dead where only the worst are placed, for fear of what they would unleash if not guarded over: the forgotten, the ruthless, the cursed. To protect all others, a select group of Medjay swore their lives to guard the wretched land until the end of time, to stop me when the time came. They would never allow me to be released. For even they know, despite all their efforts, that I will arise a walking disease, a plague upon mankind, that I will not rest until Tuya is beside me once more. Tuya — goddess of our new world.

We will be an unstoppable infection upon this world. The apocalypse. The end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I am making a Kane Chronicles/The Mummy au in 2020. Yes, I am aware I have unfinished fic. No, these things aren't mutually exclusive.
> 
> Some minor explanations: this fic holds an attempt to make the story a _little_ more historically accurate than the 1999 film. I'm not an expert in the long history of Ancient Egypt, so there's a few creative liberties being taken here and there. I'll try to explain the historical bits in the notes whenever I can. I'm also trying to get a carrd up with all the info that shows up here.
> 
> * * *
> 
> In ancient Egypt, the punishment for treason was immediate death [[1](http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2016/01/crime-and-punishment-in-pharaonic-egypt/)]. Imhotep's mummification wouldn't have happened, as the Egyptians saw the preservation of the body after death as an important step so they could go into the afterlife [[2](https://www.ancient.eu/article/44/mummification-in-ancient-egypt/)]. Everyone from the rich to the common folk could be mummified [[3](https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/3213)][[4](https://www.academia.edu/907351/Ancient_Egyptian_funerary_practices_from_the_first_millenium_BC_to_the_Arab_conquest_of_Egypt_c_1069_BC_642_AD_The_Heritage_of_Egypt_vol_2_no_2_issue_5_May_2009_Cairo_2009_12_28)], but it seems unlikely that a man as powerful as Imhotep not only would have been put through the process of mummification (regardless of the fact that he probably wouldn't get into the afterlife), but specifically one that would put a curse on whoever came across his body.
> 
> ### Glossary
> 
>  **Medjay:** (also Medjai, Mazoi, Madjai, Mejay) was originally the term used for an ethnic group that was found in Lower Nubia and Upper Egypt. They were occasionally employed as soldiers, and it was their presence that aided Egypt in becoming a military power. By the Eighteenth Dynasty (during the New Kingdom), Medjay stopped referring to an ethnic group, and became an elite paramilitary force, sent to protect valuable areas like capital cities, royal cemeteries, and the borders of Egypt. Due to this, the Medjay force also stopped being majorly, if not exclusively, Nubian.  
>   
>  **Ptah:** The god of craftsmen and architects.
> 
>  **Eset:** Isis. A major goddess with many roles, including: mother goddess, sky goddess, goddess of magic, wisdom, kingship and protection of the kingdom. Horus the Younger's mother and Osiris' wife.
> 
>  **Ra:** A god of the sun, order, kings, and the sky, and creator of life. Arguably one of the most important gods in ancient Egyptian religion.
> 
>  **Heru:** Horus. Sky god, usually represented with a falcon head. His name is used to designate two deities: Horus the Elder (or Horus the Great), who was the last born of the first five original gods, and brother of Osiris, Isis, Nephtys and Set; and Horus the Younger, the son of Osiris and Isis.
> 
>  **Asar:** Osiris. God of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation. Isis' husband and Horus' the Younger's father.


End file.
